Homeowners often have powered implements, such as, for example, snowblowers for snow removal. At the same time, many homeowners have powered lawn mowers which sit idle during the winter months.
Attachments for combining a snowblower to a powered lawn mower are shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,104,812 (Stribiak) and U.S. Pat. No. 4,403,433 (Smith). However, to use either apparatus disclosed in these references, the blade of the lawn mower must be removed from its shaft.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,446,679 (Thomas) a multi-purpose implement for attachment to a lawn mower is disclosed. In one embodiment, the implement comprises a snowblower apparatus. To use the apparatus disclosed in Thomas, however, the blade of the lawn mower is also removed.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,930,068 (Evanson et al.) discloses a vacuum device powered by a lawn mower in which the device has a transverse bar with upstanding pins to engage the blade of a lawn mower. The blade of the lawn mower remains attached to the mower, but prior to positioning the mower over the device, the blade of the mower must be oriented to a proper rotational position relative to the transverse bar, so that the blade is disposed between the pins of the transverse bar.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,359,344 (Klein et al.) discloses an electric generating implement powered by a lawn mower, in which a coupling having a U-shaped slot engages the blade of a lawn mower from below. The coupling is biased upwardly by a spring, so that if the blade is not oriented with the slot upon positioning the mower over the generator, the coupling is pushed down to provide clearance. Upon starting the mower, Klein et al. teach that the initial rotation of the blade will result in alignment of the blade with the slot in the coupling, so that the force of the spring will push the coupling up into the desired engagement position. However, owing to the relatively high rotational speed of the lawnmower blade, even at start-up, it can be that the contact of the rotating blade with the upper surface of the coupling is sufficient to keep the coupling in the depressed, lowered position, so that the desired transfer of power from the blade to the coupling does not occur.